Eagles fall to South Africa in Cup Quarterfinals

GLASGOW, Scotland – The Eagles managed only one try against South Africa in the Cup Quarterfinal match of Glasgow 7s on Sunday. South Africa, series winners in Las Vegas and Tokyo, played a clinical match and capitalized on U.S. penalties to dominate the game with a score of 22-5 and knock the Eagles out of the Cup.

Penalties hurt the Eagles throughout the game and thus starved them of much offense, especially in the first half. Though a strong defensive stance kept South Africa out of the try zone for the first few minutes, South Africa’s Chris Dry found space in the fourth minute to put the first points on the board. Justin Geduld converted the try to put the score at 7-0.

The Eagles didn’t make it out of their own end for the rest of the half. A break away and pass to Matt Hawkins by Shalom Suniula looked like it might give the USA some momentum, but Hawkins didn’t have the speed to make it around the outside.

Just before the half South Africa’s Paul Delport grabbed a quick ball off the back of a ruck and snuck around the Eagles disorganized defense to give South Africa the last try of the half.

With a quick score by Seabelo Senatla a minute into the second half the Eagles seemed to be put out of the game entirely, but they answered back with their only try of the match. Breaks by Luke Hume and Andrew Durutalo, and good movement by Hawkins, left openings for the Eagles and Nick Edwards drove the ball over the line with several South Africans in tow. Suniula missed the conversion to keep the score at 17-5.

South Africa was to score one more try before the whistle blew. Senatla had his second of the day when he cut inside Carlin Isles near the sideline to put the final score at 22-5.